The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that a Federal Court has ordered Shopify to retain data related to a group of merchants as part of a continuing case brought by the government to crack down on undeclared income earned on-line. The Globe's Irene Galea writes that the data-retention order follows a November appeal by the Canada Revenue Agency, as part of its case to verify that merchants operating stores hosted by Shopify are complying with tax law. It is the latest development in a 2-1/2-year court battle that has, so far, marked a departure from legal precedents that previously enabled the tax agency to obtain third party information through e-commerce providers. In June, the Federal Court dismissed the CRA's request for six years worth of information about Shopify's Canadian merchants, finding that the CRA's request was overly broad. The CRA appealed that decision on Nov. 13, claiming that the Federal Court made several errors in ruling against the request and acted unreasonably in refusing to exercise its discretion. In the appeal, which is currently pending before the court, the CRA repeated that the recent growth of on-line selling has made it more difficult to track the "underground economy."